SUNY at Stony Brook plans to open school in Songdo next Feb.


The State University of New York at Stony Brook received the nod from the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority for its plan to set up a campus in Songdo next year, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Wednesday.

The U.S. institution plans to open graduate school classes at the Songdo Global University Campus in the Incheon FEZ starting in February.

It submitted the application to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in December. Having passed a months-long screening, it received clearance from the FEZ authority.

Stony Brook will join George Mason University, University of Missouri and University of Utah from the U.S., Belgium’s Ghent University, U.K.-based University of Surrey and others.

The authority has been looking to house campuses of renowned foreign universities at the SGUC by providing financial assistance in a bid to create a hub for science and technology research and development on a 295,000-square-meter area.

But it faces a setback as a number of schools have been delaying their launch, stoking jitters over the educational cluster’s feasibility, funding capabilities or environmental protection.

Randolph Hester, a University of California, Berkeley professor, sparked controversy. In a letter to the Incheon Wetland Committee, he claimed some schools have decided not to open classes in Songdo, saying the island was made by “destructing tidal-flat wetlands that host tens of thousands of migratory birds and are protected by national environmental laws.”

But the authority refuted such concerns, saying the delays occurred in the central government’s inspection and the schools’ preparation process for their curriculum.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)